Developing countries are deeply divided about how to advance on global trade talks and few ministers will attend a meeting this week meant to show their unity.
Euro-zone finance ministers urged China to bear more responsibility for global financial stability as they prepared a top-level mission to lobby Beijing about its runaway trade surplus with Europe.
Economic growth will slow in most European economies in 2008, with a number of countries vulnerable to tightening credit because of rapid rises in housing costs or high levels of private debt, the International Monetary Fund has reported.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said that a host of economic problems in United States, including the severe housing slump, will cause business growth to slow noticeably in coming months.
World cereal prices are expected to stay high during the next year because of low global stocks, production problems and continued strong demand, according to the latest forecast of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), released Wednesday.
Argentina's most influential businessmen anticipate a stable to optimistic economic scenario for the next semester according to an opinion poll among 173 corporate CEO, a most unusual forecast in a country historically unstable when governments change.
A Chinese official sent the US dollar plunging in markets when he said China would shift more of its huge international reserves into stronger currencies such as the Euro to offset weak currencies like the dollar.
The Bank of England left UK interest rates unchanged at 5.75% for the fourth month running. The Thursday decision is likely to have been influenced by the surging oil price and the growing risk of inflation.
Despite the strength of the Euro which is closing on the 1.50 US dollar benchmark, the European Central Bank, ECB, left interest rates in the 13-nation Euro zone unchanged at 4% with a clear orientation towards maintaining price stability.
The consumers' prices index, CPI in Uruguay dropped 0.23% in October pushed down by the significant decrease in urban transport rates and health costs, both government managed prices.